Is it a sin if I want to rip the face off the person at IRS who changed the Form 1040 Schedule D again? After responsibly keeping track of every stock and option trade I made last year in an Excel spreadsheet, they changed the format and added a new form 8949 this year. In the past all I had to do is hit sum for each column, transfer the totals to the Schedule D, and attach a copy of my spreadsheet. Now I have to re-enter 42 pages of data to fit the new format. I was up until 2:00 am this morning an am only about 25% done. Does anyone at IRS poke his head into the real world once in a while to see how their machinations affect people?

Is it a sin if I want to rip the face off the person at IRS who changed the Form 1040 Schedule D again? After responsibly keeping track of every stock and option trade I made last year in an Excel spreadsheet, they changed the format and added a new form 8949 this year. In the past all I had to do is hit sum for each column, transfer the totals to the Schedule D, and attach a copy of my spreadsheet. Now I have to re-enter 42 pages of data to fit the new format. I was up until 2:00 am this morning an am only about 25% done. Does anyone at IRS poke his head into the real world once in a while to see how their machinations affect people?

Thanks to CAF for allowing me to vent.

No, it is not a sin: check the Torah and Talmud under the section titled "ripping faces off IRS personnel who change Form 1040 Schedule D."

On a serious note, I empathize with you. I haven't even begun my taxes yet; I'm still collecting the documents.

It is worse than I thought, but I did finish my return. The official instructions for form 8949 contain an error about recording short sales. It gives the same instruction for both the sell and purchase date. Maybe they will get their act together by next year.

I think your fine as long as I get to strangle whoever decided that I can't file OK taxes online because I was only a resident for part of the year. Why does that matter?! It all goes to the same place. And Arizona seems to have figured out how to work it, so why not OK too?!

It is worse than I thought, but I did finish my return. The official instructions for form 8949 contain an error about recording short sales. It gives the same instruction for both the sell and purchase date. Maybe they will get their act together by next year.

Why should they? It gives those 4000 new agents something to do - crack down on people that followed their erroneous instructions.